Hotels to benefit community

The city of Leavenworth is hoping to find someone to redevelop the old Nights Inn in the downtown area.

The city of Leavenworth is hoping to find someone to redevelop the old Nights Inn in the downtown area.

And the director of the Leavenworth Convention and Visitors Bureau said the development of a new hotels at that location and elsewhere in the city will be good for the local economy.

"It will be wonderful for the town," Connie Hachenberg said.

She said said people who stay in Leavenworth eat and shop in the community. And they're paying sales taxes as they make purchases.

"They are basically living in your town for maybe one night or two days," she said.

The city of Leavenworth recently purchased the old Nights Inn property at 101 S. Third St. from a bank in Tennessee for $592,500.

The two-story hotel building on the site was operated under several names over the years including Ramada Inn. But the building has been vacant for a while.

City officials plan to tear down the building but are looking for a developer interested in opening a new hotel at that location.

City Manager Scott Miller said three developers have expressed interest in building extended stay hotels there. The city will be requesting proposals from the developers as well as contacting hotel companies.

A Fairfield Inn & Suites already is under construction at Fourth Street and Metropolitan Avenue. And there are plans to build a Hampton Inn at 405 Choctaw St.

"It's very exciting to see," Hachenberg said of the development.

She people associated with the military may take up some of the new hotel rooms, but she believes tourism could increase with the new hotels.

"We're very marketable as far as our history is concerned," she said of Leavenworth.

She said tour operators like the uniqueness of the community.

Hachenberg said some overnight tours come to Leavenworth, but she believes the number will increase with the new hotels.

She said the state tourism office estimates a tourist in Kansas will spend about $100 per night. This means a tour bus group with 40 to 44 people will spend between $4,000 to $4,400 per night.

Currently, people who visit as part of the overnight tours stay at the IHG hotel on Fort Leavenworth if rooms are available. Hachenberg said the hotel on the Army post is open to the public but priority is given to members of the military.

Hachenberg said a new hotel at the site that's now owned by the city would be convenient for downtown conventions that utilize locations such as the nearby Riverfront Community Center or the Heritage Center.

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